


Danny goes Dad

by Spethzen



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Father-Daughter Relationship, Phicc, adult danny, danny phantom - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-06-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:07:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24094804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spethzen/pseuds/Spethzen
Summary: After Clockwork becomes fed up with babysitting Dannys de-aged clone he leaves her on the Fenton´s doorstep with a note claiming Danny is Ellie´s (Danielles) dad. With no obvious way out of it 22 year old Danny accepts the role as Ellies new dad.
Comments: 27
Kudos: 59





	1. How it begun

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PhantomKick](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhantomKick/gifts).



> Inspired by a prompt written by @PhantomKick   
> Danny and Dani in a father daughter relationship and the story of they switched from calling each other cousins. 
> 
> This is going to be a multi chapter phicc please feel free to comment if you like it.

Clockwork watched the little half ghost with dread as she was running around in his precious tower destroying hundreds of years old artifacts with her newly evolved ectoblasts. He had taken care of her for two years now ever since she and her clone had come to him with a problem. Dani´s brain didn’t age according to her body´s age. The girl had the body of a seventeen-year-old, but her mental state had stayed behind at the age of twelve and progressed too slow. In the rate she was going in she would always be behind in her mental development. To solve the problem Clockwork had de-aged her way past her current mental stage resetting both her body and her mind into the immature age of a one-year-old. How Danny had convinced him to take care of the toddler for a while he couldn’t quite remember. But now he was done. He was done babysitting Danny´s clone. Ellie was evolving just the way she was supposed to both mentally and physically and now when her powers had started emerging, she needed someone else than him. She needed someone who was more like her. He just hoped Danny wouldn’t be too mad at him for what he was about to do next…  
Danny had just sat down by the dinner table for breakfast like all other days of his summer vacation when he heard the sharp sound of the doorbell followed by three quick knocks. His mom passed thorough the kitchen as she hurried to answer the door. He couldn’t quite make out what she was saying but it was clear on the tone of her voice that it was something unexpected. When she came back into the kitchen her face was dead serious as she looked at him.   
“What´s up?” He asked curiously yet unsettled by his moms staring.  
“Why have you never mentioned you got a girl knocked up?” Danny choked on his cereal.  
“What?!” He choked out. His mind couldn’t get it together. Sure he had slept with a girl or two after he and Sam had broken up a few months after they graduated high school but that had been several years ago, and he had been using condoms what he could remember.   
His mom handed him a handwritten note. As he took it, he noticed his hand was shaking a little. 

“Danny this is Ellie, she is your daughter.  
I can´t take care of her anymore, she is your responsibility now.  
Be a good father.  
I´m sorry.  
Ps, she just turned three, her birthday is June 10th” 

He read it twice as he felt the panic flame up inside him, the years added up. Oh shit this may not be a cruel prank after all. It was first when he finally pulled his eyes from the note, he saw her. A tiny girl with a frightened expression peeked at him from behind his moms leg. She was almost an exact replica of the photos he had seen of himself at that age, she was just a bit smaller and had longer hair. Relief flooded thorough his body as he realized it wasn’t his daughter but his de-aged clone he was looking at. Then he remembered his mom had already read the note. Fucking Clockwork! Couldn’t he have given him a heads up at least before he dropped Dani off at his doorstep? 

“So you are trying to tell me you didn’t know that you have been a father for the past three years?” His mom asked after seeing his chocked reaction to her first question.   
“What do you think mom? Would you really think so poorly of me as to think I abandoned my own child, left the mother to make it on her own? I had more sense of responsibility than that when I was fourteen.” He answered, as he tried not to feel too offended.   
“I´m sorry you are right of course. I´m just so surprised about this whole situation.” She was going to keep talking but Dani… Eh… Ellie made a sound reminding them she was there. Maddie picked the little girl up and carried her to the table where she put her down in the chair next to Danny´s.   
“Have you eaten anything today sweetie?” Ellie shook her head in response. Maddie put another bowl on the table and Danny filled the bowl with cereal and milk. 

“She has your appetite alright.” Maddie said as the young child finished her second sandwich after already eating a bowl of cereal. She still couldn’t quite accept the fact that she had a grandchild and that Danny had been the first one of her kids to get a child of his own. Ever since she had discovered her son was a human ghost hybrid, she had kind of assumed he would be sterile. But the girl sitting by her dinner table was living proof of the contrary. She was too similar looking to her father for anyone to deny that they were closely related. Maddie´s thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the roaring sound of the RV on the street outside and relaxed as she knew that meant Jack was finally back from the grocery store. She went to meet him so she could explain the situation.

“Are you my real dad?” Ellie asked as she watched him with a curious expression. “I didn’t really look anything like Clocky, and he always corrected me when I tried to call him dad. But I look like you, don’t I?” She didn’t look away for a second as she waited for his answer. He wanted to say no, wanted to tell her the truth and keep calling her his cousin. But instead he gave in and said what he knew she wanted to hear.  
“Yep, that’s right. I am your dad, and I am going to take care of you from now on.” A happy squeak left her lips and the next moment she literally flew up and threw her arms around his neck. Crap he though she is already getting her ghost powers. But he held on to her little body. He didn´t know what Clockwork had planned he just had to trust that he knew what he was doing when he sent Ellie to Danny and his family.  
He was still holding on to Ellie when his parents entered the kitchen. Danny thought his mom must have warned his dad in advance about the child, but by the way his dad stared at him as soon as he put the bags down at the table, he guessed she never got the chance.

Jack didn’t know what to think when he entered the kitchen and found a little girl in his sons arms. She looked almost identical to Danny when he were her age.  
“And who are you little lady?” Jack asked curiously, the little girl took one look at him squeaked and in the next moment she was gone. Jack felt even more confused than before.  
“Danny why are you trying to hide the little girl clinging to your chest?” He asked suspiciously.  
“I didn’t! I promise, she did it all on her own!” Danny said sounding just slightly freaked out.  
“I was gone for like half an hour what the heck happened during that time?” Jack asked. Maddie had just entered the kitchen but had thankfully heard the word exchange as she walked down the hallway. When Danny didn’t answer Maddie decided this was her time to try and explain.  
“Like I tried to tell you outside we had a… surprise show up at our doorstep this morning. The invisible girl clinging to Danny´s neck is his biological daughter Ellie. Apparently, he must have gotten a girl pregnant around his first month in college and today someone left the child on our doorstep with only the clothes on her body and a note telling us her name, age and birthday as well as Danny being the father.” She whispered in Jacks ear, careful so Ellie wouldn’t hear what she said. He nodded and made a mental note of questions he had to ask Danny when the child wasn’t around.  
“Well you claim you didn’t turn her invisible, yet I still can´t see her. Does that mean that she has ghost powers? … That she is like you?” Jack asked hesitantly and Danny nodded.  
“Yes it seems like it.” Danny answered.   
He had of course known she would regain her powers eventually, but he had really hoped she would have gotten older before they came into effect.  
For some reason his clone was scared out of her mind by the sight of his dad and his tries to comfort her hadn’t given much results yet. In a try to calm her down he bent forward and whispered in her ear.   
“Ellie you don’t need to be afraid, that big man over there is very nice. He won´t try to hurt you I promise.” Danny whispered in a as gentle voice as possible.   
“B-but he´s so big and scary looking. What if he´s hungry?” Ellie whispered back in Danny´s ear. Of course, she grew up in the ghost zone where bigger ghosts sometimes ate smaller ones. Probably not the friendliest place to raise a toddler.  
“He won´t eat you, he´s a human, he only eats human food like ham or fudge.” He answered. It seemed to make her relax a little, but she wasn’t convinced enough to let go of her invisibility quite yet.   
“She is afraid of your size, you´re probably the biggest human she´s ever seen and that makes her ghost instincts go off telling her you might want to eat her.” Danny explained aloud. Jack nodded understanding but couldn’t help but feel a little offended by the statement. He had never eaten something with a pulse, and he for sure wasn’t going to start now or anytime soon. He sat down by the table, intentionally moving as slow as he possibly could so he wouldn’t frighten the girl more than necessary.  
“Hello there Ellie, I see you´ve already gotten pretty well acquainted with my wife and my son. I didn’t mean to scare you when I came barging in like that, frankly I was just as surprised to see you here as you were to see me. Do you know how old you are Ellie?” Jack asked trying not to look right at the spot where he knew the girl were. He heard a low mumble in response.  
“I´m sorry, I am getting a bit old so my hearing isn’t the best dear, could you say that again please?” He pleaded.  
“I´m this old.” She answered as a floating hand appeared in the air between them holding up three fingers in the air.  
“Woah already three years old, you are such a big girl already! How long have you been three years old?” Jack continued in an impressed and cheery voice.  
“A week” The invisible girl answered with a bit more confidence in her voice.   
“Oh no, that means we just missed your birthday! What about next time we go to the supermarket I´ll buy you a birthday present? Would you want that?” Ellie instantly dropped her invisibility.  
“A present?” Her whole face lit up with excitement by the thought of getting a gift.   
“Yes of course, what kind of grandpa would I be if I didn’t give my grandchild a present when she just reached the important age of three years old?” He continued; Ellie was now so exited Danny was almost afraid of dropping her.   
“I have both a dad and grandparents?!” She almost screamed. All three of the adults looked at her with surprise over her overjoyed reaction to these news.   
“You only had your mom before you came here then?” Maddie asked curiously. To her surprise the girl shook her head.  
“Uncle Clocky said my mom isn’t alive. He took care of me, but when I got powers, he said I couldn’t stay with him anymore.” She explained and the sad tone in Ellies voice almost broke Maddie’s heart. 

So Ellie had never had a parent before and the only parental figure she´s ever had abandoned her because she had been part ghost like her father. She knew Ellie would probably have it better here with her half-ghost dad who would be able to help her understand her powers, but she would never understand how someone could take care of a child for a few years and then just decide to leave her with total strangers. It didn’t really matter night now though. The important thing was that she had finally found a safe home where she could grow up with people who would understand her and love her for who she was.


	2. Not that easy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It´s the second day of parenting for Danny. Everybody says it´s difficult to raise a child but Danny has already met a lot of challenges in his life. How hard could it be to become a parent?

“Are you sure you are really up for this Danny-boy? Being a parent is much harder than you might think.” Jack said for what must have been the third time that morning.  
“You’ve already told me that dad but as I see it there are no other alternatives available. I´m the reason she exists to begin with, she is my flesh and blood and therefore my responsibility. I don’t care how hard it will be, I´m her dad now no matter if I like it or not.” Danny sighed, rubbing his forehead as he paced back and forth between the walls of the lab. He and his parents had been discussing the subject of Ellie and parenthood most of the night. As soon as the Fenton´s were sure Ellie was fast asleep in Danny´s bed, his parents had brought him down to the basement to discuss the situation as they had called it. They kept bringing up the sacrifices he would have to do to become a parent as if that would change anything. Danny was already all too used to sacrificing his own happiness for the welfare of others. When ghosts started to haunt the town Danny had sacrificed his time and health to keep them back, and when his grades dropped because he never had time to study, he let go of his lifelong dream to become an astronaut and so it went on and on. What was a few more sacrifices? He would just have to drop out of college right before he started his last year, get a paying job, stand everybody´s questions, try to explain Ellie to his two best friends before Sam killed him, keep both of their ghost identities secret from the public, and of course raise a slightly over-active three-year-old girl with ghost powers… No problems. No problems whatsoever… He was definitely toast. 

Danny was interrupted in his mental monologue as he suddenly heard the sound of a medium sized explosion coming from upstairs, more exactly his bedroom. He reacted on instinct as he transformed and flew straight thorough the roof, ready to meet whatever ghost was wreaking havoc in his own home. When he phased thorough the floor to his room, he heard an ear shattering child´s scream and immediately got hit in the chest by an ectoblast. He crashed into the wall with a considerable force and a big white could of wall dust bloomed up around him as he had to phase himself out of the new hole in his bedroom wall. As he looked around his room for the ghost who had attacked him, he almost missed the tiny black-haired girl standing on his bed looking even more frightened now than she had done when she had arrived the day before.   
“W-who are y-you and w-what are you d-doing here?” She stuttered; the poor girl shook like a leaf, but she still looked like she was more than ready to fire off another powerful ectoblast in case Danny was planning to go to attack.   
“Ellie? What´s going on? It´s me.” Danny said but the girl didn’t move a muscle.   
“I don’t know you. Get out of my house or I´ll scream for dad.” She said in a serious voice as she tried to look as threatening as possible. It was then Danny realized why she was acting so weird. She didn’t recognize him in his ghost form.   
“Ellie it´s me Danny, your dad. This is just my ghost form. I can turn into a ghost at will to gain better control over my ghost powers.” Danny tried to explain in a calming voice. Her eyes grew a little bit bigger with interest, but she still didn’t lower her defense. Smart girl. Her response was only two words.  
“Prove it.”  
“Of course sweetheart. As I transform back a bright light will show up around my body. It is nothing dangerous, so I would be very grateful if you don’t shoot me again as that happens, okay?” She nodded in agreement but still didn’t move an inch. White rings of light appeared by his waist and quickly flashed over his body. He ducked just in time for the green ray of pure ecto energy to pass over his head. He turned around and looked at the smoking hole in the wall right behind his head.  
“I thought I specifically told you to not try and shoot me as I transformed.” He said with an irritated voice.   
“I´m sorry daddy, I got scared.” She answered regretfully. He heard a careful knock on the door.  
“What´s happening in there? Is it a ghost?” His dad asked from behind the door.  
“Yeah if you combine me and Ellie together there is almost a full ghost in here. Don’t worry okay, we´ll come down to the kitchen in a few minutes.” Danny answered trying to sound as carefree as possible. He could hear his dads heavy footsteps grow more distant as he walked away from the door.  
“That was some powerful ectoblast you hit me with earlier, you have some really good reflexes as well. I´m impressed.” Danny told Ellie as he rubbed the sore burn mark on his chest. He could feel it blistering as he spoke. He didn’t worry though as he knew it would be healed within a couple of days.   
“It was? I´ve only had it for a few days but I started practicing as soon as I got it.” She said cheeringly. Danny could very well imagine a three-year-old´s method of training with ectoblasts and considered what a coincidence it must have been that Clockwork decided to send her away to him days after she had evolved her ectoblasts.  
“Okay little lady, time for us to get ready for breakfast. Danny said and went to pick her up. But as he came around to the side of the bed, he stepped on something metallic lying on the floor. As he looked down, he saw the burned remains of what had been his equally beloved and hated spaceship alarm clock. That explained the earlier explosion, it must have gone off and she shot it down to make it stop. He chose not to comment on it he just let out yet another sigh and helped Ellie down from his bed. 

“Hey mom, where´s the burn cream?” Danny asked after looking thorough a few cabinets.  
“The what?” Maddie asked.  
“You know the cream you put on to treat fresh burn marks?”   
“Oh that´s in the first aid kit. We store it in the bottom cabinet to the left.” Jack cut in.  
“Oh thanks dad.” Danny answered and picked it up on the counter. Before he took his new shirt off so he could apply some of the cream on his chest.  
“Oh my! Where did you get that burn mark?” Maddie cried out.  
Danny felt a little embarrassed as he explained “Ellie didn’t recognize me as Phantom, she caught me by surprise with an ectoblast.” His parents looked surprised back and forth between him and Ellie.  
“You, the legendary half ghost Danny Phantom got caught by surprise by a three-year-old girl?” His mom said with a slightly mocking tone in her voice.   
“Maybe he´s grown soft during college. What do you say Mads? Should we try our luck and try to hunt him down for old times sake.” Jack joked. Danny just rolled his eyes at them.  
“Ha-ha very funny guys.” He said unamused and put the first aid kit back where it belonged and went to pour himself a big cup of coffee. “It was a really powerful blast, she sent me away across the room and into the left wall.” His parents looked a little less amused now.  
“Please don’t tell us…”  
“The wall needs a renovation; it looks a little worn.” Danny finished, interrupting his dad midsentence. His parents just sighed and started doing some calculations.

“Am I in trouble for breaking that wall?” Ellie asked as soon as they had left the house.   
“Of course not, you were only defending yourself against an unknown threat. Besides it isn’t the first time I´ve been slammed through a wall in that house; believe it or not.” Danny replied. She looked relieved as if she had expected him to be mad at her or something. Danny looked at the clock and realized they were already running late. They were supposed to meet up with Sam in the park in fifteen minutes and he really didn’t want to make her wait, not today.   
“Hey Ellie, have you ever wondered how it would feel to fly?” 

Sam was preparing the picknick, carefully placing out the food on the soft blanket. She was a tad more thorough in the task than she normally would have been, that way she had something other to think about than her nerves. Danny had texted her yesterday saying they needed to talk but had refused to elaborate on it. Last time he had done that their talk had escalated into a petty fight, both had been too stubborn to apologize soon after they broke up and they had barely spoken to each other for about a month. But as time went on, they had patched things up as usual and become good friends again and when about a year had passed, they decided to get back together as well.   
Now, years later, she couldn’t even remember what the fight had been about, just that it had been unnecessary and stupid. He showed up out of thin air as he dropped his invisibility almost giving Sam a heart attack in the process. She hit his arm with the side of her fist.   
“Don’t do that! You almost scared me to death!” she scolded. He just shot her a juvenile smile making his sky-blue eyes sparkle. He knew very well she couldn’t stay mad at him for long when he gave her that adorable smile.   
“Sorry.” He said, not sounding regretful at all and gave her a quick peck on the cheek.  
He looked down at the sandwiches she had prepared and selected one covered with nasturtium flowers. Even though he seemed so insistent yesterday that he had something to tell her he sure didn’t seem to be in a hurry to start talking. That either meant it wasn’t as important as he made it seem or it was so bad, he didn’t really want to tell her.   
“Daddy why are you eating flowers on a sandwich you picked up from the ground?” Sam jumped in her seat and stared at the seemingly empty spot on the other side of Danny where the girly voice had come from.  
“Danny, did you bring a ghost child to our picknick? And why did she just call you Daddy?” she asked in a wary voice.   
“Yeah, about that. She is kind of the thing I said I needed to talk to you about.” He answered with a tense voice. “Ellie could you drop your invisibility please?” A few seconds passed by where nothing happened, then the air next to Danny started to vibrate a little. All of a sudden, a little girl with pitch black hair sat next to Danny.  
“Who is the kid?”  
“Who is that lady?”   
Sam and Ellie said at the exact same time as they looked each other in the eyes.   
“Sam this is my daughter Ellie.” He paused to give Sam a look that told her to keep calm a little longer and turned to the girl.  
“Ellie this nice lady is my girlfriend Sam. She can be a little intimidating sometimes, but she likes me very much. Well, most of the time at least.” All of a sudden, he started to pat his pockets and look around on the blanket looking slightly panicked. Then he bent down close to his daughters ear and whispered. “Daddy has forgot the flowers he was supposed to give to his beautiful girlfriend. Could you be a dear and go to the tree over there and pick the nicest flowers you can find so Sam don’t get mad at me? Make sure to pick up the whole flower with the roots still attached.” Ellie nodded eagerly and ran away as fast as her legs could carry her.  
“You have a daughter?!” Sam called out angrily the second Ellie was out of hearing distance.  
“Please don’t kill me, there is a reasonable explanation behind all of this.” Danny said so quickly the words were barely audible. She crossed her arms over her chest, waiting on the explanation she didn’t believe existed. “I´m waiting.” She said tensely.  
“Do you remember Danielle?” He asked, his eyes were pleading, begging her to make the connection. She looked over at the girl, all she could see from this distance was her pitch-black hair, but her memory filled in the blanks.   
“I thought you said she destabilized and melted into a puddle before you had the time to help her?” Sam said looking at Danny with suspicious eyes. He scratched the back of his head, something he often did when he felt slightly uncomfortable.  
“Well I might have bent the truth a little on that one. Her mind was unstable, so I got Clockwork to de-age her to stabilize it, then I convinced him to take care of her. Dani didn’t think she would be able to remember her old life once she became a one year old, so she made me, and Clockwork promise not to remind her of her past life. So whatever you do please do not call her by her former name.” Sam nodded and looked past Danny at the little girl who were on her way back with a big bundle of flowers. She was covered in dirt from head to toe and wore a wide smile on her face as she held the flowers out to Sam. Sam grabbed the small wildflowers and gave the little child a surprised smile.  
“Wow they are beautiful, thank you very much.” She said and carefully put the flowers next to her bag. She noticed the girl had been very careful with the roots when she had pulled the flowers up and with a little bit of skill Sam would be able to re-plant them in a flowerpot. “If Clockwork took care of her, then how come she´s with you now?” She asked curiously.   
“Well, she´s my flesh and blood. She has just started to get some of her powers, so Clockwork decided she was better off living with her real dad.” He answered. She couldn’t help but notice that Danny changed his way of speaking whenever Dan… Ellie was around.   
“So how long have you been her dad? Or known about it at least?”   
“Oh, she was delivered to my doorstep yesterday morning. I almost thought mom would decapitate me.” Danny explained, trying to hide a small frown. Ellie tugged at Danny´s shirt to call on his attention.  
“Daddy I´m hungry.”  
“Then take one of these delicious sandwiches Sam made.” He said and lifted the jar of sandwiches up.   
“But they are weird. That one have flowers on it and that other one has grass on it. I can´t eat grass!” She protested pushing the jar of sandwiches away. Danny shot Sam an apologizing look but to his surprise she was giggling.  
“She sounds just like you and Tucker did that time I made all the cafeteria food ultra-recyclo-vegetarian.” She explained, still giggling over the memory. Danny just rolled his eyes and picked up another sandwich with nasturtium flowers.  
“Here try this. I really like these, and I think you will like them as well.” Ellie still looked skeptical but did as told.   
“BEWARE.” Danny sighed deeply not believing his luck.   
“Seriously Boxy? Did you crawl your way out of the ghost zone and fly all the way over here just to irritate me? You know I can beat your ass without even trying.” Danny growled and stood up.   
“I am the Box ghost, ruler of everything square and rectangular. You haven’t fought in four years while I have practiced every day. You cannot beat me!” He shouted in his most irritating ranting-voice.   
“Please don’t force me to get up there and fight you. You will regret it trust me.” Danny warned, not feeling much hope the box ghost would take his advice.   
“The box ghost is not afraid of you. BEWARE once I defeat you, I will become the sole ruler of the ghost zone and then I will take over the world!” Danny just shook his head as he jogged to the closest tree and transformed into Phantom. He flew up into the air fast as lightning with a cocky smile on his lips. Though Danny was irritated over Boxy´s interruption he kind of looked forward to fighting him. It was true what Boxy said, he hadn’t had a real fight in years since he hadn’t been in town for most of the year. That however had not stopped him from keep practicing a lot. When Danny appeared from under the tree the box ghost didn’t look quite as confident as he had done seconds before.   
“What´s wrong Boxy? Are you squared?” Danny said mockingly.  
“The box ghost does not get scared by you!” He answered and shot a blue ectoblast. Danny flew slightly to the side and avoided it easily.  
“Oh wow you’ve finally evolved your ecto blasts I see, congratulations!” Danny said and answered the attack with a round of ice crystals. To his surprise Boxy weren’t there when the ice passed by the spot where he had floated a moment before. Boxy really had gotten better at this. An ectoblast hit Danny in the back causing him to lose his balance and fall a few meters.   
“Okay, I´m done playing around now.” Danny said under his breath as he turned around. He made a lasso out of ectoplasm; he threw it and successfully caught the box ghost on the second try. Sending an electric current thorough the lasso Danny stunned Boxy just long enough to suck him into the thermos he had hanging on his belt. The fight had only lasted a minute or two, but it had been more than enough to attract a small crowd of people on the ground. Some had just come to look at the show, but most were holding their phones up taking pictures or filming. By dinner time more or less everyone in town would know their ghost boy had returned. To avoid getting caught transforming Danny went invisible before he descended back down behind the tree. Just to be sure he kept his invisibility until he sat back down at the picknick blanket before he let himself become visible again. Sam jerked away in surprise whispering something under her breath, but Ellie seemed totally unfazed by the sudden appearance of the person she considered her parent.  
“Daddy. That was AWESOME!” She shrieked excitedly and climbed up in his lap. She continued by telling him every detail of the fight but from her own perspective on the ground. “… So the next time we fight a ghost…”   
“Wait what did you just say?” Danny said suddenly alert, he had apparently zoned out at some point during Ellies long talk but those few words had sobered him up really fast.  
“I talked about how I will help you fight ghosts.” Ellie said and was about to continue talking but Danny stopped her.   
“Ellie, you can´t fight ghosts with me.” Danny said with a firm voice. All the excitement left her face at once.  
“Yes I can. You are a real-life hero and I want to help you keep the bad ghosts away.” She answered dead serious.  
“No you can´t. I´m really sorry sweetheart but I can´t let you get in the middle of a ghost fight. It wouldn’t be responsible.” He said. She looked at him like a puppy who had just gotten hit in the face.  
“Why not?!” She wined. “I have powers just like you do and I´m strong. You said so yourself this morning when my green ray threw you thorough that wall.” She continued. Sam gave him a look when Ellie mentioned the wall incident, but he didn’t have the time to explain it.  
“Because you are too young Ellie. You are only three years old and you still only have the most basic ghost powers. Fighting ghosts is scary and really dangerous, I don’t know what I would do with myself if you got hurt.” He explained as he looked deep into her eyes.   
“I just saw you defeat that blue ghost; it didn’t look that scary or dangerous.” She countered and Danny let out a deep sigh to keep him from getting irritated.   
“That is because he is like the weakest ghost in the entire ghost zone. I have a lot of enemies and he is the weakest of them all and even he can surprise me sometimes, like that ectoblast I got hit with in the back. You can help me fight some ghosts one day when you are older and have more powers but for now it´s just too dangerous for you.” She pouted but finally stopped protesting. Sam watched their little argument with fascination. Ellie totally adored Danny and she had only known him for a day. She also noticed how much Danny cared for Ellie. Perhaps not in the way a parent would quite yet, but it was definitely heading in the right direction. She just wasn’t quite sure yet how she herself would fit into the equation. Her boyfriend had a daughter now, that would change a lot of things not only for Danny but for all the people closest to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I did have bigger plans for this chapter but I didn´t want my chapters to be too long. So here you go while I start writing chapter 3.
> 
> Thanks for all the kudos and comments on chapter one, I hope you will enjoy this chapter as well!


	3. Stars and an interview

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny thinks he is finally starting to get the hang of being Ellies father but that was when he was a stay at home dad, now he needs to get a job but a ghost attack forces the interview to take a different turn than Danny had planned it to.

“Do you see those four stars building a rectangle with three stars in a row leading out from it?” That constellation is called the big dipper, it is a part of a bigger constellation called Ursa major or the big bear.” Danny explained as he pointed the constellation out to Ellie who instantly drew it on the piece of paper, she had insisted on bringing with her. She used Danny´s chest as a support, his ghost form´s jumpsuit provided the perfect smooth surface for the task.   
The day before Danny had caught Ellie out of bed in the middle of the night leaning dangerously far out thorough the window in an attempt to see the star sky. When she had noticed she was caught red-handed she had just stared her dad straight in the eyes and complained that Clocky had told her there would be tiny sparkling lights all over the sky visible at night called stars here, but that she had looked almost every night and only seen one or two small lights. Danny had almost immediately offered to go star gazing with her, exited over the thought of sharing one of his main interests with his daughter.  
Obviously, she had picked up on his offer and here they were. Danny floated lazily on his back a few hundred meters into the air, carrying Ellie on his stomach. She couldn’t fly on her own yet, but she seemed more than satisfied with having Danny flying for both of them. They could have watched the stars from the Fenton op center but since she had never seen the full night sky before he had gone the extra mile and made sure to fly the both of them high enough to get past most of the night pollution. Once Ellie had filled her paper with constellations to the degree where she couldn’t draw any more, she carefully folded the paper and gave it to Danny for safekeeping before she turned around and lay down on her back on his chest. Then she just looked up and listened carefully to every word he said. He were just done explaining what a galaxy was when he realized she hadn’t asked about anything in a few minutes. Seconds later she turned in her sleep and curled her little body into a ball for a more comfortable position. He looked at her for a moment taking, in the little girl smiling in her sleep, totally relaxed even though she were suspended so high up in the air without any fences or safety nets. Then he gripped her softly into his arms so he could shift into a more upright position as he let himself sink towards the ground and Fentonworks. He phased thorough the roof into his room and moved slowly as he gently put her down in her bed. She opened her eyes into thin cracks and protested sleepily that she wanted to see more. But she had fallen back to sleep already before he had the time to come up with an answer. He fluffed her pillow, tucked her in and kissed her forehead goodnight before he turned back to human and went to bed himself. 

Danny flew fast thorough the green darkness of the ghost zone, how he had gotten there he couldn’t quite remember. He desperately needed to find something; he just couldn’t remember what it was he was looking for. He desperately needed to find it, fast. If he didn’t find it soon it would be too late. The darkness became denser the further he flew as if he was reaching the end of the dimension. It was really dark now, so dark he could barely see his white glove in front of his face. But now he could feel it, he could feel that he was close. If he just went on a little further the thing he needed to find would be there, just a little further… That was when he noticed he was losing his speed, to fly forward suddenly felt like trying to swim in really thick syrup. But the thing was so close! He just needed to go a little further just a few feet further and he would find what he was looking for. That was when he suddenly started to fall. He couldn’t fly or even try to slow it down he just fell faster and faster toward he didn’t know what. In the growing distance, high above him he heard a deep, cold, laughter.   
Danny woke up when his body landed in his bed with a bounce that almost threw him out of it and down on the floor. He was already hyperventilating, and his heart was beating like a sledgehammer in his chest. Something grabbed his arm in the darkness of his bedroom, and he let out a choked scream as he tried to get away.   
“Daddy wake up! Calm down it´s just a dream.”   
“W-what?” Danny said as the last remains of his nightmare were loosening it´s grip on him.   
“You just had a nightmare, but you are awake now. What scared you can´t reach you now.” Ellie said calmingly. Danny found himself standing a few feet from his bed, on the other side of it Ellie stared at him with glowing green eyes.  
“Yes, of course sweetheart you are right. I´m sorry if I woke you up.” Danny said and sat back down on the bed, now when the panic had eased, he could barely remember what the dream had been about.  
“No you didn’t, I woke up because it is so light in here. I thought it was morning, but the sun is not up yet. I was just about to try and fall asleep again when you started floating up in the air and mumbled things in your sleep.” Danny nodded thoughtfully, that explained the feeling of falling and why he had bounced up from his bed when he woke up.  
“Speaking of light. Are you aware of the fact that your eyes are glowing green?” He asked.  
“My eyes are what?” She asked surprised holding her hand out as if she hoped the glow would reflect on her palm.   
“They look just like this.” Danny said and let his own eyes glow green, the green of his ghost form. She once again looked really excited, as always whenever she discovered she could do something Danny could.  
“Does that mean I will be able to turn into a ghost too?” She asked and Danny nodded. Ellie let out an exited sound basically jumping up and down.   
“I know it is exiting and all sweetheart, but Can we talk more about this in the morning? It should be around three in the morning, so we still have several hours left on us to sleep and daddy needs his rest.” Danny explained and even though Ellie looked a little disappointed she nodded and went back to bed where she curled up into a little ball. He watched her in the dark for a moment, his perfect night vision letting him see every detail of her face that quickly relaxed as she fell back asleep and he could feel a warm tingling feeling in his chest as he looked at her. 

The trio stumbled into the Fenton´s kitchen right before breakfast time, small puffs of green smoke still rising from their clothes and hair. Jack and Maddie looked at them, stiff with surprise but flew up and rushed forward the moment the two guys collapsed on the ground.  
“Danny, Sam, Tucker! What happened? Danny, I thought you were still asleep upstairs? Why didn’t the ghost alarm go off?!” They took one teenager each and started to check them for injuries or causes to why they had collapsed. Sam who barely kept herself up by the help of the kitchen counter quickly got a chair to rest up on as she tried to answer some of the questions.   
“Something has deliberately caused the ghost sensors to fail. Danny got woken up by his ghost sense and called us as soon as he had left the house. Prince Aragon attacked and it seems like he has somehow reproduced because he had four smaller dragons with him as he attacked the north part of town. We caught him and the others at last but almost a whole neighborhood is either burnt to crisp or covered in ghost ice.” Sam explained, she was pale as a sheet and if Maddie looked closely, she could see the tough girl shake in delayed shock.   
“How many people were hurt?” Jack asked in a serious tone as he disinfected the claw marks on Tuckers back.   
“I-I´m not sure, perhaps about a dozen? I can´t be sure before the authorities has been there and taken a closer look. Danny´s ghostly wail woke the people up and sent them on the run to the emergency rooms. But there are always those who don’t get there in time.” Her voice broke a little as she said this. Maddie got up from the floor to fetch the ecto-burn cream and made sure to give Sam a soft motherly hug on the way. The girl had some burns and scrapes as well but seemed to be in a generally better condition than her best friend and her boyfriend.   
“So what happened to make the boys like this?” Maddie asked as she cut phantoms jumpsuit open to get better access to the wounds. As she carefully applied burn cream to almost all of Danny´s back she felt grateful her son had been smart enough not to shift back to his human form as the wounds would heal quicker and better if he stayed ghost for a little while longer.   
“Well Tucker had two of the ghosts trying to possess him at the same time ten they proceeded to fight about the space while they were inside him. Danny got that big burn on his back which drain his energy as his body tries to heal it, then he took several hits from all directions and at last I shot the ghosts out of Tucker with the ecto gun and then Danny duplicated into three and used his ghostly wail to put them all in one place so I could suck them into the thermos. He stayed conscious just long enough to get us here but his injuries and excessive use of his powers for the last few hours has drained his energy quite a lot.” Sam explained looking more and more tired. Maddie nodded thoughtfully, she wanted to turn Danny around to look for more wounds or broken bones but at the same time she didn’t want to disturb the healing process of the third degree burn on his back. So instead she turned back to Sam.   
“How is it with you sweetie? Do you have any injuries that need attention?” She asked but she was already putting cream on to the light burns.   
“I think I´ve probably sprained my ankle.” She said with a grimace as she tried to move the foot she was talking about.   
“He should have woken us up when he noticed the ghost alarm didn’t work. We could have helped you and gotten rid of the ghosts quicker.” Jack said with a stern voice as he started picking the two young men off the floor to put them somewhere more comfortable.   
“He couldn’t, he said he needed you to be here if Ellie woke up before he came home. He made sure to sneak out so she wouldn’t wake up.” Sam explained and squeaked as Maddie pushed Sam´s injured foot into the right position so she could wrap it in a tight bandage. Jack picked Tucker up with a small groan and carried him all the way to the couch in the living room where he tucked him in. He was just turning around to go and puck Danny up when a child´s upset shout could be heard from the midsection of the staircase.   
“Daddy!” Ellie screamed and rushed towards her dad´s limp body on the floor as fast as her little legs could carry her. Jack caught her right before she reached Danny but to the Fenton grandparents the child´s upset calls for her dad almost immediately pulled Danny back to consciousness.   
“Ellie?! What´s happening? Is another ghost attacking?” He jumped to his feet as if he was ready to fight whoever threatened his daughter but then he wobbled and collapsed back down to the floor, hitting the side of his head against the counter. Not that he seemed to notice as he kept looking around until he found Ellie; upset but securely locked into her grandpas arms. “Oh thank god, you are okay.” He said relieved and leaned his back towards the cabinet just to immediately shrug away from it with a small “Ouch”. The girl was still close to frantic, crying and trying to wiggle her way out of Jack´s arms.  
“No, Ellie it´s okay. Please don’t be scared, I am okay.” Danny gave standing up another try, but this time he made sure to move with more care and made sure to take support from the counter to keep his balance. “See, I´m fine. Please don’t be upset.” He said staring into her eyes with his most calming look. The same look he usually gave frightened citizens to make them calm down. It seemed to work because her hysterical crying shrunk into small hiccups. She reached her hands out to show she wanted him to hold her instead but after a quick reassessment of his injuries he decided against it.   
“I´m sorry sweetheart but daddy is still a little bit too sore hold you right now. Grandpa can help you to make some breakfast in the meantime.” He explained without breaking his calming eye contact, it seemed to work almost hypnotic because she finally stopped crying altogether and after a few hesitant seconds she even dared to give her dad a small smile before she let Jack take her a few steps away to the breakfast table.   
“Damn that was… impressive. How did you do that?” Sam said after watching the surprisingly short exchange with wonder. He shrugged in response but immediately winced in pain and seemed to regret the movement.   
“I´m not sure how I do it I just noticed some years ago that if I look deep into people’s eyes and focus on looking and sounding calm people tend to almost instantly calm down.”  
“Does it work the other way around too?” Sam asked, feeling intrigued.  
“Why would I want someone to feel like they are freaking out?” Danny asked, lilting his head slightly to the side. Sam tried to come up with a good reply to that but for some reason she couldn’t, at least not on the spot.   
“Is there any chance you guys could watch Ellie? I think I should go to bed; the burn will heal faster if I am asleep and don’t burn more energy than necessary.” He asked his parents who nodded in agreement.  
“No you can´t go to bed actually.” He turned back towards Sam.  
“And why not?” He asked with a grumpily.  
“You have a job interview at Casper high in about an hour and a half.” Danny groaned loudly as he covered his face with his hands.  
“For fucks sake why do ghost always have to attack whenever I´m supposed to do something important at Casper high?”  
“Language young man.” His mother said with a stern voice nodding discreetly towards Ellie.  
“Oh Sh… Err I mean… Oh I´m sorry.” He said feeling his cheeks burn, creating a light green blush on his cheeks. “But what am I supposed to do now? I can´t shift back in the next few hours unless I want ten times more pain and risk permanent scarring and I rather not put my human body thorough that.” But he also knew he couldn’t cancel. When he had looked up numbers to call to arrange a meeting, he had found Lancer had gotten promoted to principal. The teacher he had caused the most trouble for was now running the school he was hoping to work at. Perhaps except for his parents Danny was the most qualified person in Amity park to teach ectology but his track record as a student would definitely speak against him.  
“Well can´t you just spray paint your hair black and wear blue contacts?” Sam suggested.  
“If it only were that simple. I´m not sure you’ve noticed, but I don’t look quite as human as I did in high school. I look more and more like… Like Dan. My skin tone is still human, but my hair has been changing it´s texture and the fangs is kind of a dead give-away.” Sam looked slightly bitter when she declined her suggestion, but she seemed to perk up when he mentioned his teeth.  
“Did you just say fangs?” Before he had the time to answer she had already limped the few steps over to him and pulled his chin down to look closer at his teeth. She immediately saw the four slightly longer razor-sharp teeth. “Wicked! My boyfriend has teeth like a vampire.” She said, making Danny blush again, he could feel his neck and ears turn green.  
“You know most people would take offence if someone just forcibly looked into their mouth and proceeded to tell them they look like a vampire.” Danny crossed his arms over his chest in an attempt to look stern.  
“Lucky you are nothing like regular people then.” Sam countered and kissed him on the cheek.   
“Thanks” he said with a dry voice as he did his best to keep back a smile. “But I still don’t know what I am going to do. I really need this job but if I come to late or try to change the date not even two hours before the meeting Lancer is never going to give me the job no matter how qualified I am.”   
“Why don’t you just go as Phantom then?” Ellie asked, smiling at him with some milk dripping from her face. She dried it off with her sleeve a second later. He opened his mouth to protest but a voice from behind spoke before he had the time to.  
“That isn’t a terrible idea actually. You are applying as a teacher for the science of ghosts after all, who would be better to teach humans about ghost biology and the ghost zone than a ghost himself.” Everyone in the kitchen turned around to look at Tucker who was leaning towards the door frame.   
“He does have a point, plus you would have a legit excuse to run out of class whenever a ghost is attacking.” Sam added. Danny turned to his parents for support, but their body language was clear as day. This is your decision to make not ours.

Danny took a deep, calming breath before he knocked on Lancers office door. The school was empty except for a handful of students and teachers who were unfortunate enough to have summer school, but he still stayed invisible until he heard Mr. Lancer called out for him to come in.   
“Welcome you may sit down in the chair over there, I just need to read and sign this paper before we can begin the interview.” Lancer said absently and nodded toward two small armchairs divided by a coffee table in the corner. Danny did as told, feeling his core vibrate slightly as a short spike of nervousness ran thorough his body as he sat down. A minute or two passed by in silence, then Lancer looked up with a polite smile just to freeze in his seat as his eyes reached Danny´s.   
“Mr. Phantom?! What are you doing in my office?” He called out with surprise. Danny noticed his old teacher had gripped his desk with both hands as to support himself from falling.  
“I am here to get interviewed for the position as the new ectology teacher.” He answered honestly.   
“But you´re a ghost?”   
“And you´re a human.” Danny countered acting as if he had no idea what Lancer was hinting at.  
“I guess there is no harm in interviewing two people for the job.” Lancer mumbled quietly to himself. “Alright I´ll interview you for the job, but you will have to wait a little while. Danny Fenton had booked this time for an interview, I´m sure he will be here any minute now. I guess I hadn’t really expected him to be early.” Lancer said and got up from behind his desk to pace around the room. Danny carefully bit his lip contemplating his alternative for a moment.   
“About that Mr. Lancer, I think there is something I should tell you.” The change of tone in Phantom´s voice got Mr. Lancer to stop in his tracks and turn his full attention back to the ghost boy or rather ghost man. “Mr. Lancer can I trust you with a very, very important secret? If I tell you, you can´t tell anybody not even your own relatives or your best friend.” Lancer shriveled is eyebrows feeling confused but after thinking about it for a moment but nodded when he saw the young ghosts concerned expression.  
“I promise I won´t tell a soul Mr. Phantom.” He answered and he saw the ghost relax just a smudge.   
“Okay here goes nothing.” Danny mumbled under his breath. “As you may have noticed I am not an ordinary ghost. I look, sound and even act more human than most ghosts do. I keep fighting the ghosts that comes to Amity Park to protect you humans. As if I choose you in front of my own sort.” He paused and Lancer nodded that he could continue. “You may also have noticed that something was slightly off with Danny Fenton. He wasn’t really like any regular high school student. He started acting really weird in the middle of freshman year and weird things also seemed to happen around him, am I right?” Lancer nodded.   
“He started dropping things unusually often, you could leave him alone in a room for two minutes and the whole room was crashed when you came back. He always ran out of class and vanished at random times, usually right before a ghost attacked.” Lancer remembered aloud.   
“Exactly. Anyhow there is a reason to why the two of us are so different, why neither of us seem to fit in anywhere.” Phantom continued. Lancer thought he might have a feeling as to where this was going. Something a certain young redheaded boy who played in the basketball team had never stopped talking about.   
“The reason to why he and I act so weird, why our names are so similar, why we even look almost the same is that we are the same person. I am Danny Fenton and he is Danny phantom.” Lancer stared at him for what felt like a really long time, biting the inside of his cheek as he took in the information. Comparing pictures and memories in his head.   
“It sounds pretty… strange. How would that even possible? How can you be both a ghost and a human?” Lancer asked, his voice sounding more curious than skeptical.   
“I can give you the scientific explanation some other day if we both have some hours over to kill, but the short answer is the portal accident. In freshman year I got curious about my parents new invention and walked into the nonfunctional ghost portal, when I was in there, I accidentally turned it on and got… Well I got electrocuted so badly I should have simply burned to dust then and there. But right then the veil between this world and the ghost zone broke and the essence of the ghost zone mixed with my DNA bringing me back to life, well half of me back to life at least. When I woke up again, I felt different, but it took a couple of days before I realized the accident had turned me into a half ghost, half human hybrid.” After this explanation Mr. Lancer did look skeptical and Danny knew it was an almost unbelievable explanation so to prove what he said was true he focused really hard and only turned his head human. As soon as he had waited long enough for Mr. Lancer to conclude that it wasn’t a ghost trick, he let his head go ghost again, he could never hold on to a partial life/death transformations for much longer than a couple of minutes. Lancer was sitting quiet for a really long time this time, but Danny didn’t dare say anything and risk disturbing a very important process of thought in Lancers head.   
“Well that definitely both cleared things up and complicated things at the same time.” The middle-aged man mumbled at last.  
“In what way?” Danny asked feeling anxious he might just have totally blown all his chances for the job.   
“Well this definitely explains all the missed school hours, why your grades hit rock bottom the first two years and all the times you fell asleep in the middle of class. By this confession I also know you are probably one of the most knowledgeable persons in the world when it comes to ghosts and the ghost zone. But the fact that you are the town hero also makes it harder for me to think you will be a reliable teacher for the students. Surely your parents has done an admirable job at keeping the ghosts at bay while you´ve been gone… To college?” Danny nodded. “But I think both of us know that you can´t really just stand by and watch others do the fighting, especially not since everybody knows the mortality rate connected to ghost attacks is almost seventy-five percent lower when Phantom is in town to fight the ghosts off.” Danny nodded again, looking down at his white boots as he waited for the words, I am sorry, but I can´t hire you. “Therefore I will begin to ask you, what is your motivation? I already know you are merited enough within your subject, but why do you all of a sudden want to become a teacher? I thought you were planning to study at college for another year so you could be a scientist, perhaps even become good enough to work for NASA one day.” His expression didn’t show judgement, only empathy and curiosity.  
“I have a three-year-old daughter now. I gained custody over her when her mother passed away a few weeks ago. Her name is Ellie and she is just like me, ghost powers and all though she has just started to evolve her own.” Danny´s answer had apparently not been what Mr. Lancer had expected because he stared at Danny with surprised amazement. “Except for that I have considered the possibility to become a teacher before. I actually chose between studying education and studying science in collage. But I grew up with two scientist parents, a lot of the time I only had one parent available at a time and sometimes when they were close to a breakthrough, I only had Jazz. I can´t be a scientist and a single parent at the same time. It is not fair to Ellie therefore I hope to be able to work as a teacher instead and help educating young minds. I want them to understand their unique situation as citizens of Amity park and to help them understand the ghosts that they see almost every day.” Danny added. He watched his old teacher writing a small note on a paper before looking back up at Danny.  
“Do you have any formal education or experience in teaching?”   
“Well I helped mom teach some self-defense classes a few years back and I´ve helped some of my friends in the ghost zone to learn about humans. Does that count?”   
“Well not really but in this case any experience at all is better than nothing.” Lancer answered with a polite smile. “So let´s say I decide to hire you, you are in the middle of class when the ghost alarm goes off and you realize a ghost are attacking the school. As Phantom you feel an obligation to fight the ghost as quick as possible but as a teacher you are responsible for a whole class of students that you need to bring to safety. What do you do?” Lacer asked, looking genuinely interested in the answer.  
“I would dive down under my desk to duplicate myself then one of me would go fight the ghost and the other would bring the students to safety.” Danny answered without hesitation.   
“So you´ve finally mastered duplication then?” Danny nodded with a proud smile.   
“It only took me about six years to perfect.”   
“Since you don’t have an education in teaching I would have to educate you from now to the beginning of the fall term there would be a lot of hard work on your part to achieve the needed level of expertise and you would have to continue to study a few hours a week outside of work for a few more months after you started teaching. In other words, you would need to be a parent, a teacher and a student at the same time. Are you prepared and motivated enough to put up with the extra work?” This time Danny hesitated; he didn’t want to take on something way over his head.  
“Yes, I admit it will be hard, very hard even. But I think the reward will be worth it in the end. I am not one to take the easy way out of things.” Mr. Lancer smiled approvingly.   
“I think we are finished here Mr. Fenton, or do you prefer to be Mr. Phantom since you came here looking like that?” Lancer asked and raised an eyebrow at the nice jeans and very loose shirt covering his torn, regular black and white jumpsuit.   
“No, Mr. Fenton is fine. I just got my back badly burned by a dragon ghost this morning so therefore I´m stuck like this until it is healed. The suit got temporarily destroyed so I had to cover up with something that wouldn’t rub against my back too much.” He explained as he rubbed the back of his head.   
“I´ll see you here at 8am tomorrow then Mr. Fenton. You are allowed to bring your daughter if you can’t find a babysitter with such short notice.” Danny looked at him for a moment with surprise clearly visible in his face.  
“You mean I get the job?” He asked hesitantly.  
“You still have a trial period as a teacher student but yes Danny, you got the job.” He said and saw relief and happiness flood over the young mans face. Mr. Lancer smiled back because he could finally launch his schools new subject.


	4. The nightmare of clothes

“Come on Ellie, just put the freaking shirt on!” Danny begged for the tenth time that morning as he chased her around the room.   
“No!” Ellie shouted back as she continued running around the room. At last Danny succeeded to catch her and halfway wrestle her down just long enough to get the shirt over her head and on to her body. She quickly phased out of it and ran away still half-naked. Danny tore his hair to pieces.   
“Please, I beg of you to put the shirt on now. We need to get to school or ill be in big trouble with Mr. Lancer.”   
“No! I don’t want to! School is boring, there is nothing fun to do there!” Well she is not wrong there Danny thought as he went on to chase her straight thorough the wall and up to the attic where he proceeded to chase her straight thorough the floor all the way down to the Livingroom. The kid had learned how to phase thorough stuff only two days ago, but she definitely wasn´t wasting any time in learning to use the power to her advantage.   
“Come on you complained all day that you didn’t get to wear this shirt, you said it was your favorite.” He called out as he continued chasing her.   
“That was yesterday! I want the green shirt with a white splash!” She yelled back. Danny couldn’t help but notice she shared to sound slightly out of breath. He upped the pace a bit, forcing her to run just a little faster. 

“You wore that one the day before yesterday, it is still in the wash.” He tried to explain as they ran thorough a supply closet, up a wall and thorough the floor to Jazz´s old room, then back out the door into the hallway. -If she could just fricking learn how to turn into a ghost, I could at least suck her into the Fenton thermos.- Danny thought, clenching his jaw as he continued to hunt the devilish child. They had just reached the top of the roof when she finally ran out of breath and collapsed in a gasping heap against the metal surface. Danny picked the worn-out girl up by her ankle which earned him an exhausted giggle, then he once again dressed her in the shirt and brought her with him as he packed everything they would need for the day and then, before she had regained enough energy to resist they walked out the door and into the car that would take them to school. He knew he could probably have handled the shirt thing better; he couldn’t keep chasing her until she ran out of stamina, sooner or later that would just lead to her gaining enough stamina to outrun him instead. She was surprisingly fast for her age, so fast in fact that he almost started to suspect super speed was one of her ghost powers. He parked the car and went around the car to free Ellie from her special car seat. She didn’t utter a sound as he opened the door, she just stared at him, arms crossed over her chest. The message was clear, she was not going to leave the car voluntarily. Danny just rolled his eyes at her stubbornness, put the bag on his back and phased her thorough her seat-belt. She screamed with anger all the way into the building. 

“Robinson Crusoe! What happened to you Daniel? Did a ghost attack you on your way here?” Mr. Lancer greeted him as soon as he walked thorough the door with a furious Ellie on his shoulders.   
“Almost, that one didn’t want to put her shirt on, though I think it might have more to do with the fact that she didn’t want to come here.” Danny explained pointing up to his daughter. Mr. Lancer tried to hold back a chuckle.   
“Yes, children can be quite the challenge sometimes. I can imagine a child as special as young Ellie here can put up quite the fight even for you. Danny took a look a himself in the reflection of the window and saw that his hair was a greater mess than usual and when he looked down at his wrinkly clothes, he realized he had totally forgot to change out of yesterdays clothes which he had fallen asleep in the night before. His parents was out of town for a couple of days to buy material for their latest invention. Of course the ghost alarm would go off on the other side of town when he was both the only good ghost fighter left in town and home alone with his daughter. Sam had been busy, so he had been forced to first drop her off at Tucker´s then go and fight the ghost on his own and then come back and fetch her in the middle of the night. Danny had of coursed payed his friend for the trouble.   
“I´m sorry I look like a total mess.” Danny apologized as he tried to comb his hair thorough with his fingers before he remembered he had Ellies airbrush in the backpack and used that instead.   
“Don’t worry about it Daniel, I´ve taught high schoolers for over thirty years. Trust me when I say I have seen worse, you as a freshman or sophomore for example.” Mr. Lancer raised one eyebrow into the air.  
“Ha-ha very funny Mr. Lancer.” Danny said unamused. “Can we start the lesson now?” 

The day turned really hot toward the afternoon and Ellie convinced Danny to buy them some ice cream on the way home. It seemed like she had finally stopped being mad about the shirt incident from that morning. To Danny’s surprise a red car was parked by Fentonworks and he felt a jolt of excitement as he recognized the license plate. He rushed out of the car and was in such a hurry to get Ellie out of the car he even forgot that he could use ghost powers to get her out like he had done earlier that day. The door was unlocked just as Danny knew it would be. She was waiting for them in the hallway with a big smile and her arms slightly stretched out towards the sides.   
“Jazz!” He cheered and lurched forward to capture his older sister in a crushing bear hug that lifted her up off the floor. “I have missed you so much.” He mumbled into her hair, fighting to keep tears of happiness from escaping his eyes. After a long moment he loosened his grip slightly so she could slide back down to the floor. Danny had gotten a proper growth spurt when he hit seventeen and by now, he was almost as tall as his dad which of course made him about a head taller than Jazz. He had loved to tease her about it. Ellie must have made a noise cause Jazz suddenly turned towards the door and gasped.   
“Oh crud I almost forgot about my niece!” Jazz exclaimed and sank down to her knees on the carpet, so she got closer to Ellies height. Ellie hesitantly took a few steps towards her aunt before stopping to look at her dad for confirmation. Danny smiled encouragingly and gestured for her to go on. She took three hesitant steps forward and looked up on Jazz from under her bangs.  
“Hi there Ellie. It´s so nice to finally meet you. My name is Jasmine, but you can call me auntie Jazz. I´m your Dad´s older sister.” Jazz introduced herself with that soft high-pitched voice which she reserved for young children and small animals.   
“I have seen photos of you in the house. But you look different now.” Ellie stated, still not moving forward.   
“That is right, I do look different now. Your dad looks different in the photos as, well doesn’t he?” Jazz looked deep into Ellies eyes smiled. A moment later Ellie nodded and closed the last distance between them so she could give her aunt a hug. When she released her grip a moment later a shy smile played on her little face.   
“My name is Elinore Dorothea Capella Fenton, but everyone just calls me Ellie.” Jazz raised her eyebrows at Danny at her second middle name. Danny was surprised Ellie could even pronounce any of her names.   
“Her birth certificate arrived with the mail a few days after she came here, and I haven´t been able to change it.” Danny explained; Clockwork had chosen all of her names, though Danny did wish he had come up with that middle name himself. Danny had applied to change her other middle name to something easier, more modern but it seemed Clockwork was not going to let him because only hours after he had posted the name change, he had found the letter back at his desk. After doing it four times with the same result he just gave up.   
“But to name her after a star? Though I guess you and her mother must have had something in common.”  
“It isn’t just a star Jazz, it´s the 6th brightest star in the night sky and it´s known to flicker and change color when you look at it from earth. You must admit it suits her better than her mom must have known.” He scratched the back of his head and then he went and picked his daughter up to keep his hands busy. As he turned back around Jazz stared at them, her mouth slightly open. “What now?” Danny asked already suspecting what she was about to say.  
“Oh it´s nothing really. She just looks so much like…”  
“Like me? Yeah, I know. I´ve only been told that by basically everyone who has seen us together since she arrived.” He said with a proud smile and put a hand on Jazz´s shoulder so he could steer her to the kitchen. They had a lot to catch up on, but they could might as well eat as they did. 

“Danny sweetie wake up.” His mom shook his shoulder gently. He didn’t want to wake up, it felt so good to sleep for once, but his mom was persistent. He sat up with a groan.  
“What do you want?” He asked rubbing the sleep out of his face.  
“Where is Ellie?”   
“Jazz kidnapped her about an hour after we came home from school.” He let out a big yawn before he stood up from the chair in the kitchen, his back crackled loudly as he stretched it out. He had been doing his homework by the dinner table when he fell asleep. “What time is it anyways?” He asked as he realized he had no idea about for how long he had been sleeping.   
“It´s 7:pm. I don’t want to worry you, but shouldn’t they have been home by now?” His mom asked. -Three hours, Jazz and Ellie had left three hours ago, and they hadn’t returned.- About a hundred scenarios ran thorough Danny´s head in only a few seconds. -Someone somehow pretending to be Jazz to take Ellie under his nose. Ellie and Jazz both getting kidnapped by ghosts.- Then the thought that it could be the act of humans sent yet another set of terrible possibilities to list up in his head. Danny called Jazz´s phone but got sent straight to her voicemail. Danny soon decided something really bad had happened and was just about to transform and start trying to track them when he heard the sounds of his car engine driving up by the house. It got turned off and then the sound of doors opening and closing. He ran to the door with nothing in his mind but to make sure they were okay. 

“Where the heck have the two of you been?! It´s been three hours, no calls, no messages! I was about to send out a search party for you.” Danny scolded Jazz right before enclosing his sister and his daughter in a tight hug.   
“Man, calm down little brother. I told you we were going to the mall since you said you had problems finding clothes that she liked the last few mornings. Then Ellie got hungry again, so we went for a bite to eat. Gosh I had never expected you of all people to be such a chicken dad.” She said and lovingly pinched his cheek as she passed by him to the front door.   
“Try yourself to be a half ghost with a ton of dangerous enemies who hates your guts and raise a half ghost daughter in your early twenties at the same time.” He muttered under his breath as he climbed the steps to the front door right behind his family members.

“So how come some shopping and a dinner took three hours?” He asked curiously, leaning against the door frame as they stopped in the kitchen.   
“Because your daughter has a very specific sense of fashion just like her dad. It took almost an hour just to find a shirt she wanted to try. Then we needed to find sweaters as well.” Jazz put the shopping bags at the table and started pulling out the clothes to show them off. Danny felt his cheeks heat up slightly as he saw a very familiar white shirt with an oval print on the chest and colored sleeves. It looked just like the only kind of shirt he wanted to wear during most of his childhood, except for the color. His shirt had been white and red whilst hers was white and blue.   
“I have no idea what it is with you two and the design on this shirt, but she refused every shirt I suggested until her eyes fell on this one and once she found it, she wouldn’t let it go.”   
“Seems like she wants to look as much as Danny as possible.” Maddie stated with a humored smile.  
“No, that doesn’t make sense, I haven’t worn that shirt since I was sixteen. She hasn’t seen me wear it since she moved here.” He protested.   
“That’s true, she hasn’t seen you wear it as an adult. But she has seen a lot of pictures of you as a child and as a young teen. We barely have a handful of photos where you don’t wear a shirt looking like that.” Jazz said immediately picking out an old picture from her wallet from when he was fifteen waving in in front of his eyes.

He cringed by the sight of his fifteen-year-old self. The shirt he wore in the picture was really worn and stained, his hair was a total mess (like it hadn’t been washed nor brushed in days). He was really thin and in the middle of one of his first awkward growth spurts and he had dark circles under his eyes from all the lack of sleep. But the smile he had in the picture looked genuine. The picture was taken over a year before his parents had learned his secret identity. Danny always tried to forget what a mess he had been back then, at the same time as he felt incredibly bad for his old self.

“That picture is seven years old. I was a total mess in that photo, why do you still carry it around in your wallet?” Danny complained.   
“Because no matter how old you get, or how powerful you will become it is good for you to remember your roots. I want to be able to remind you of where you where you once were so you can see exactly how far you have come.” She answered with a shrug and put the picture back in her wallet. Then she emptied the shopping bags revealing several sets of shirts and sweaters Ellie had chosen herself. More or less all of the shirts looked the same with small variations, the sweaters looked different from the shirts but identical to each other. Danny just took a minute and looked back and forth between the shirts and his overjoyed daughter. At last he gave out a sigh and shrugged it off. He didn’t get why she had to inherit his terrible taste in clothes, but if she was happy with wearing the same thing every day like he had been. Then he guessed he wouldn’t be the one to stop her from doing so.


	5. Ellie goes ghost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ellie finally gets her full transformation but it didn´t go quite as Danny had thought it would.

Danny felt tired but strangely exited after another long day teaching. He had just given his students their first test in ectology and he really hoped the results wouldn’t be too bad. He actually enjoyed teaching more than he had expected and the so far ungraded tests in his bag would help to determine if he would get a more permanent position at the school. He was even looking forward to grading the tests, though that would probably change after reading about a handful of them.  
Ellie came running towards him the second he stepped inside the door and he had to quickly drop his bag to the floor to catch her as she jumped up into his arms. Maddie turned up around the corner seconds later.  
“Ellie has something she want to show you, she is really excited about it, but I want to give you a warning beforehand because she almost scared me to death.” Maddie said, her arms crossed in front of her as to protect herself from the chock. Danny walked closer to his mother to be able to see her better, her eyes were still red and swollen and she trembled slightly, almost unnoticeably. Something really serious had happened while he had been gone. He was just about to bring it up when Ellie called for his attention.  
“Daddy let me down, I want to show you my new ghost power!” Danny immediately turned is full attention back to his daughter.  
“You got another power? That’s really exiting! What is it this time?” Danny said with more excitement than he actually felt. His mothers warning words and worried expression still echoing in the back of his head. He let the girl back down on the floor.  
“Don’t freak out, she has done this like ten times by now and her values are all stable.” His mother warned again, instantly making Danny ten times more worried. He watched his daughter smile widely before she scrunched her face together in deep concentration. Then she melted into a puddle of slimy green ectoplasm. Danny instantly forgot everything his mother had said and screamed in horror, falling down on the carpet to try and… Do what? Scoop up her remains? She had destabilized trying to show him something. But before he had the time to do anything the pool of ectoplasm started bubbling and stirring around. Within a few seconds he looked straight into a pair of glowing, ectoplasmic green eyes in a face surrounded by long wisps of unruly, unnaturally white hair. He just stared at her for what must have been several minutes, not being able to utter a single syllable.  
“Didn’t I tell you not to freak out?” Maddie said right beside him making him jolt in surprise since he had never noticed her moving. She offered her hand to help him to his feet and he took it thankful for the help.  
“Well you could have told me what it was I wasn’t supposed to freak out about.” He whispered back next to her ear. Ellie was still standing there waiting eagerly for him to say something.

“You have gotten your Phantom form!” Danny said shakily, he was still trying to get over the fact he had just seen his daughter die by melting. He had expected her to be able to change soon. But why was her transformation so different from his? So… creepy?  
“Yes! Isn´t my change cool?! That stuff I got on me was really painful but then I woke up and I looked different and now it´s so much easier to use my powers!” She chirped and jumped up into a quick spin with her feet about a meter above ground. “I even know how to fly now!” She continued and flew around the room to demonstrate. Danny tried, he really tried to seem enthusiastic about it not to disappoint her but something she had said had stuck on Danny´s mind. His moms frightened/guilty expression, Ellie saying she had gotten something on her that had hurt really bad right before transforming. Danny drew the conclusion that Ellie must have had an accident of her own.  
“Sweetheart would you mind going up to our room for a moment? Daddy would really need a moment alone with grandma.” He begged his daughter. She stopped with a disappointed frown  
“Why?” She asked.  
“Because sometimes grown ups need to discuss things that isn’t fit for children to hear. If you go up there now and wait until I come and fetch you, I can take you out and start teaching you how to use your new powers later. Do we have a deal?” She nodded eagerly and immediately ran up the stairs and Danny heard his bedroom door slam in the distance.  
“You are getting really good at that.” Maddie said warmly before her son turned back around and gave her a glare so cold, she could almost feel her own blood freeze.  
“Tell me what happened exactly as it happened, and I might reconsider my decision on if you will ever get to see your grandchild again or not.” Danny said, his voice was calm, but she could feel the power of his rage swirling right below the surface. Maddie nodded with drooping shoulders.  
“In that case think it´s best you follow me to the lab.”

Maddie stopped before they had reached the bottom of the stairs, she wanted to try and explain before he saw the total mess down there.  
“I just want to begin by saying that I promise it was an accident. We were playing games when the phone rang. I got distracted and looked away just for a minute. I had forgotten to activate the ghost shield since last time we were in there and she must have phased thorough the floor or ran thorough the door and down the stairs. I didn’t…” Maddie started crying and for a moment she had to be quiet and collect herself before she could continue.  
“I didn’t even realize she had ran away until… Until I heard her scream.” Maddie looked up at her sons face and saw how all color drained from it and how it then got a flush of green as if he was going to be sick.  
“What happened?” His voice was toneless and devoid of emotion.  
“I think it might be better for you to take a look at the scene of the accident with your own eyes because I haven’t been able to fully decipher it myself yet.” She said and took a step aside to let him pass. Danny immediately ran down the last steps and rounded the corner. He had not been prepared for the sight that met him. His stomach turned violently, and Danny had to quickly turn into Phantom not to throw up all over the floor. The sight was horrific and yet it was almost impossible to say what had happened exactly, just like his mom had said.  
One thing was very clear though, Ellie had laid her hands on the shelf of dangerous and discarded experiments and weapons. Danny couldn’t understand why they hadn’t thrown them out. Danny had specifically told them to throw it out three times; the last time being only months ago when Ellie moved in. Danny moved closer, taking in separate details more carefully.  
Not less than three different kind of ecto-guns had been torn down from the shelf which it seemed at least one of them (the most dangerous one) had gone off at least once during the las couple of hours. Several cans and bottles with samples and dangerous chemicals had fallen or been pushed down from a table close by. Spread all over the scene, but mostly centered next to the little puddle of life (or death) threatening liquids was blood splatter. After looking thorough all the details a couple times more Danny came to the conclusion that Ellie must have shot herself with the defect ecto-gun that didn’t only harm ghosts but also humans. She must have lost her balance or panicked and stumbled into the table where she must have gotten some chemical on her that either was extremely dangerous causing her to melt or it made her freak out so much she temporarily destabilized. Danny guessed that had made her still dormant ghost genes activate, which ended up saving her by making her half dead just like Danny was. He could never be sure of the exact chain of events though unless a camera or someone like Clockwork had witnessed it. Danny once again felt nauseous as he thought about what his little girl had been forced to go through. That pain, the fear she must have felt as she saw her body melt. 

“How could you be so irresponsible? Why did you even have this stuff just lying around when you knew even your safest inventions could hurt her? She is lucky she still has a pulse, if she hadn’t had so much ghost in her she would be permanently dead by now.” Danny didn’t realize he was crying until he heard one of his tears land in the puddle of chemicals with a loud hissing sound.  
“You better be careful cleaning up this mess, I have a feeling you won´t be as lucky as me and Ellie if you get killed by another one of your inventions.” He said coldly before flying straight up into his room where his daughter should be waiting. On the ground where he had turned his back to her Maddie noticed two perfect footprints made out of ghost ice left on the floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got the inspiration to her new transformation from an amazing gif made by the tumblr: pigte So thank you!


End file.
